Gee's Bend Challenge--The Big Reveal!

Today was the first day of the London Friendship Quilters' Guild "Harvest of Quilts" show. I volunteered in the morning at the raffle table with Christine. At lunch time, we went out for lunch with the group involved in the Gee's Bend Challenge and everyone got to show off their projects. Others in the restaurant were also admiring our handiwork!

For most of us, this project took us way outside our normal comfort zones.

Everyone used fabric from our stashes--often the fabric was something we would not something we would normally use in our quilting projects. The back of this quilt was as interesting as the front!

My quilt was made mostly of denim and corduroy leftover from shortening jeans and cords. The pocket is from an old pair of jeans that my daughter wore at one time.

The binding was made by wrapping the backing fabric around to the front of the quilt and sewing it down. The corners were not mitered!

Lots of wild fabrics in different combinations were used in these projects.

Some of these fabrics were used to make boxer shorts for this quilter's sons!

This was a fun challenge and we have decided explore the possibility of doing another challenge soon!

The bonus of this project was getting to see everyone again and going out for lunch. It was a great opportunity to get caught up with the latest news!

Quilt Show Season!

Today, I went to the Oxford Quilt guild show in Ingersol, Ontario. "Pieces of Magic"--lots of beautiful quilts. Several showed different colourways of the same pattern such as Friendship Braid. They had a FB class at the guild. It was interesting to see how different the quilts looked with the fabrics that each quilter picked. I only took a few pictures. They had two places where the quilts were displayed--Trinity United Church and the Ingersol Art Centre. I took pictures of my favourite quilts at each site:

Lots of tiny pieces in this sampler!!!  Maybe I will try one of these one day as a new challenge to myself!

These quilts were made at a workshop led by a guild member who had learned about the Gee's Bend quilts. I picked the one in the bottom picture as my favourite at the Art Centre.

Tonight was the first meeting of the season for the Elgin Piecemaker's Guild. Lots of good show and tell. I had my camera but did not take any pictures.

Tomorrow, I have to be up bright and early for the London Friendship Quilters' guild show. I think I am Over-Dosing on quilt shows this week...

Ready for the Quilt Show

I spent most of the afternoon making labels and sewing them on the last few quilts for the quilt show. Finally, they are all ready to go! 

I have spent time over the last few days working on my nieces' flannel disappearing 9 patch quilts. Here is a sneak peak at one of the quilts, without all the blocks sew together yet:

The other one is still waiting for me to sew  the blocks back together after cutting the 9 patches into 4 pieces.

These are Christmas gifts --I am hoping to have them done early as I have some other gifts that I am working on as well.

I also finished off my Gee's Bend Challenge today as well.  We are getting together later this week to reveal our projects. I will post a picture after the big reveal.

Disappearing 9 Patch

Today, I spent all afternoon making 9 patches for two disappearing 9 patch quilts which I am making for my twin 11 year old nieces for Christmas. The fabrics are almost all flannel leftovers from the pyjamas that I have made for them for their birthdays each year. I have a huge basket overflowing with flannel pieces and it doesn't look like much of a dent has been made in the flannel stash so far...but I have plans to piece the backs of these quilts with the larger chunks of fabric. That should help to contain the pile a bit better!

This block is not sewn yet...I was demonstrating to my husband how I was going to make these blocks.

These quilts will be very cozy and will be full of memories of their warm pj's from Auntie Gail!

I have finally finished all of the sleeves on my quilts for the quilt show next weekend. Just a couple more labels and I am ready!

Yesterday was the last day of the International Plowing Match and my husband and I went to the match for the morning and early afternoon. I wanted to see the Square Dancing Tractors!  The show was put on by a group of male farmers from Teeswater. They have Farmall antique tractors and practice their square dancing moves once a week in the Spring, Summer and Fall. Believe it or not, I actually took square dancing lessons when I was younger so I knew what the caller was talking about as she orchestrated the dance of the tractors.

The "female" and male partners wore the same shirts but the "females" wore lovely skirts, and pantaloons with workboots. And, no, they did not shave their legs before the big show! This one kept "her" makeup in "her" purse and powdered "her" nose during a break in the action.

 

I wonder if any of them are quilters???

If you would like to see the Square Dancing Tractors, Rick Mercer was there on Saturday afternoon to take a spin on a tractor and this will be on one of his upcoming shows on CBC.  You can watch the show online at the link above after it has been on TV.

Sewing with Jacqui

This morning, Jacqui came over and we did a little sewing. Jacqui worked on machine quilting a table topper--she wants to get it done in time for our London Friendship Quilters' Guild show on October 1st and 2nd. She did not get it finished but it is well on its way to being done.

I worked on finishing up the units for the border of my Carolina Christmas quilt. (I really should come up with another name for this quilt--I am not using Christmas fabrics!)  I still have to finish putting my blocks together before I can add the border.

After Jacqui left, I decided to make a selvage thread catcher for myself. I have had the pattern for a while and I had even decided which fabrics to use.  I used some sewing themed fabrics for my project and fussy cut the pincushion fabric so the yellow and green pincushion would show when it was done.

I think I am going to work on some Christmas gifts now--I won't be able to show any pictures as some of the recipients read my blog. Happy sewing!

International Plowing Match and a Parcel in the Mail

Today was the first day of the International Plowing Match in Central Elgin, just west of St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. I volunteered in the quilting tent for the morning where I sold raffle tickets with another local quilter from the Elgin Piecemakers Guild. We had lots of visitors from all over the province and one lady was from Quebec!
This is the sign outside the quilt tent--Elly is the mascot of the IPM this year.
Here is my quilt on display. All of the quilts were covered with plastic in case it rained and the tent leaked! No rain today. Warm and sunny all day!

When I got home, there was a package on my front porch--it was my pumpkin wall hanging for the Quilted Table Yahoo group swap from Joan, a quilter from Denver, Colorado! She sent along a few goodies too.
Thanks Joan for the wonderful parcel!

How I Spent my Morning...

I spent my morning at Christine's house where we were working on piecing the borders of our Carolina Christmas quilts. We each got about 1/2 of the units done and hope to get the rest done before we get together again in a few weeks. Both of us are still working on putting the blocks together for the middle of the quilt as well. I have one row of 5 blocks put together.

We have already decided that we are going to work on another quilt together after we finish this one. We have a couple of ideas about what the next project might be.

My mums are in full bloom in the backyard garden--they are a nice bright spot in the garden at the moment. I had company yesterday and scurried around in the morning to decorate the house for fall before everyone arrived. Here is my table centerpiece:

I also put out my new Fall table runner on the trunk that we use as a coffee table in our living room.

I received a fabric postcard in the mail today from another quilter in the London Friendship Quilters' Guild. I had put one of my postcards into the mailbox at the last meeting. Isn't it pretty?